


Better Things to Do

by AuroraWest



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Christmas Tree, Established Relationship, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, POV Stephen Strange, Quickies, Romantic Fluff, Seduction, Sexual Content, Wall Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:27:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraWest/pseuds/AuroraWest
Summary: Avengers HQ is the absolutelastplace Stephen wants to spend his Saturday morning. He has way better things to do. Or rather, better people to do. He had to cancel a date, and he's irritated about it.
Relationships: Loki/Stephen Strange
Comments: 21
Kudos: 71
Collections: Froststrange Week 2021





	Better Things to Do

**Author's Note:**

> It's technically still the 12 days of Christmas, so this isn't unseasonal yet.
> 
> For Froststrange Week day 4, prompts "It looks like you're in trouble there. Can I help?"/holding hands while it snows/seduction

“Looks like you’re in trouble there, Strange. Can I help?”

Stephen peered down through the branches of this ridiculous oversized _pine tree_ that the Avengers had found god-knew-where. This was the absolute last place he’d wanted to spend his Saturday morning. Wanda got it. She’d shot him a look of solidarity across the room when he’d arrived, where she was setting up a menorah.

He didn’t know about her, but he had way better things to do. Or rather, better _people_ to do. He’d had to cancel a date, and he was irritated about it.

It had been irritating enough that he’d almost, _almost_ told them he couldn’t do it, that they could check the tree for interdimensional parasites themselves. Bishop wouldn’t tell him where they’d gotten the thing. But when he’d started to say he was busy, Loki’s face had flashed through his mind, his blue eyes filled with trepidation at the idea of—well, Loki worried about a lot of things. His own privacy, Stephen got that. The more nebulous worry that people would ‘say things’ about Stephen—that one, he wished Loki would let go of. People had been talking shit about him for his whole life for a variety of reasons. He could handle it.

But Stephen hated when Loki worried, and being the reason for that worry was even worse. So he’d told his boyfriend why he was standing him up, where he was going, and asked if Loki minded meeting later. Loki had sighed theatrically on the video call, then raised an eyebrow, smiled slightly, and said, “You know I wouldn’t miss it.”

But the last place he’d expected to see Loki was…here, at Avengers HQ, a place he avoided like the plague. Stephen had watched Thor physically pull him through the front doors on at least one occasion. He _hated_ this place. For him to voluntarily appear here…well, it made something warm glow in Stephen’s chest.

“I wouldn’t call this trouble,” Stephen said. “Unless you can see something in this tree that I can’t.”

“I can see something in it that shouldn’t be there,” Loki said, an eyebrow arched.

As soon as Stephen fell for this, he kicked himself for doing so. “Let me guess,” he said dryly, turning back around and crossing his arms over his chest. The Cloak fluttered at his ankles. This was a really undignified use for it, but the Cloak was nothing if not tolerant.

“Please,” Loki replied, his lips pursed in a smirk.

“Is it an incredibly handsome, witty, and intelligent sorcerer who got suckered into decorating for a holiday that he barely even likes?”

There was an amused look on Loki’s face. “Possibly. Why don’t you come here so I can be sure?”

That sounded like too good of a deal to pass up. He swiveled, gave the tree one last perfunctory look, and then shot a spell at it that would take care of anything lurking in its branches. Needles rained down on the floor as the spell also denuded an, um, well, not insignificant portion of the tree. If anyone asked, Stephen was just going to say it had been like that when he’d gotten there.

As his feet hit the floor, he straightened his robe and asked, “What are you doing here, anyway? Normally you try to avoid anywhere that you might encounter multiple Avengers at one time.”

Loki shrugged, then took a step closer. One of his fingers traced over the top of Stephen’s belt. “I was in the neighborhood.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Someone in New York that I’d made plans with canceled on me.” With a sigh, Loki ran his finger back the other way along Stephen’s belt.

Stephen felt a smile twitch at his mouth. “Sounds like an asshole.”

“Well.” Loki’s finger hooked into the belt. Desire bloomed in Stephen’s gut, a low throb of need. It never took much with Loki. “I believe he wanted to keep our…arrangement a secret.”

_Arrangement_. For god’s sake, Loki. “Oh,” Stephen said. “So it was like, a booty call?” When Loki gave him a nonplussed look—he _hated_ when Stephen used that term, and Stephen would never _not_ find the expression on his face adorable—Stephen added solicitously, “That’s a Midgardian term for when you have a casual sexual relationship with someone—”

“You’re very funny,” Loki said witheringly.

His finger was still hooked into Stephen’s belt, though. So he wasn’t too put off. “I actually had to cancel plans this morning,” Stephen said. “Kind of like whoever you have this arrangement with—I figured the guy didn’t want me telling a bunch of people about us.”

Loki smiled slightly. “Perhaps you can give me some advice, then,” he said. “I worry that I may give the impression that I want our relationship kept quiet because I’m embarrassed, somehow, rather than the truth, which is that I want to protect him.”

Shifting closer to Loki, Stephen asked, “Well, is this a serious thing?”

“Mm.” Another finger joined the first around Stephen’s belt. “I would say so.”

“Lucky guy.”

Loki gave him a sidelong look. “Do you think so?”

“Oh, yeah. If I wasn’t already involved…” Stephen let Loki pull him a little closer.

“Flattering,” Loki said. His fingers flexed. “The thing is, I’ve never cared for anyone else the way I care for him, so I would have to turn down your offer.”

“Like I said,” Stephen murmured. “He’s a lucky guy.” Stephen breathed in, fighting the overpowering urge to put his hand on Loki’s waist. They were close enough that Stephen could smell that distinct and heady Loki scent—leather and wool, Blenda laundry detergent, the expensive leave-in conditioner he put in his hair that smelled peppery and citrusy and really good, and underneath it, the faint suggestion of his skin, his sweat, his musk. Impossible not to touch him, but Loki was Loki, and despite this flirtiness, he would still be worried about being discovered. There was absolutely no point in putting a premature stop to this, so Stephen kept his hands off.

“I think,” Stephen said in a low voice, “that if it’s serious, this guy you’re seeing probably knows that.”

Wrapping his entire hand around Stephen’s belt, Loki pulled their hips together. The bridge of his nose whispered across Stephen’s. “I hope so,” Loki murmured. His other hand slid over Stephen’s waist.

“Does he know you’re here with me?” Stephen asked, unable to stop the crooked smile from twitching at his mouth.

In answer, Loki kissed him, hard and insistently. The smoldering heat in Stephen’s belly exploded. Fuck it. Stephen grabbed Loki’s hips and pulled him close and leaned into the kiss—

And then the door opened.

The two of them leapt apart, Loki hastily turning away and clasping his hands in front of his hips as he stared up at the tree. Stephen did a quick, surreptitious check to make sure his—uh—urges weren’t obvious. Thank god for this robe.

It was Wanda, holding the candles for the menorah. “Loki,” she said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

He gave her a lopsided smile and said, “Why is everyone so surprised that I’m here? Perhaps I’m just in the Yule spirit.”

“The tree is for Christmas,” Wanda pointed out.

Loki waved a hand. “Right. Christmas. Whatever.”

There was a curious look on her face as she put the candles in the menorah and her eyes flicked between the two of them. “Are you helping Stephen?”

“Yes,” Loki said. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. Helping Stephen.”

Her head tilted. “How nice of you.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Loki agreed. Turning to Stephen, his hands still in front of his hips, Loki asked, “Aren’t you supposed to decorate this tree?”

“Yeah, I didn’t sign up for…” But Loki’s eyebrow was arched, and Stephen recognized the gleam in his eyes. And his hands _were_ still in front of his hips. “I didn’t sign up for that, but we can at least bring the boxes in.”

There was a look on Wanda’s face that pretty clearly said she wasn’t buying it for a second, that she probably suspected already that the two of them were together and this was just further evidence. Loki jerked his head and said, “Let’s go, Strange.”

Doors lined the hallway. Loki opened the first one, which revealed an empty room. “I don’t think there are any Christmas decorations in here,” Stephen said.

Loki shut the door, locked it, and pushed Stephen up against the wall, one hand scrabbling to undo Stephen’s belts and the other running over his face. “Not one of my better seductions; sorry,” Loki breathed.

Stephen pulled Loki’s face to his. “It worked,” he said into Loki’s mouth before he gave himself over to the hunger in Loki’s kiss. Of course it worked. All Loki needed to do was walk into a room and Stephen was seduced. The way he threw his shoulders back, daring the world to try him, the way his eyes took in everything in the room with one sweep. That swagger.

If the way Loki ground his hips into Stephen’s wasn’t unsubtle enough, he also undid his own pants before Stephen could get to them. The words, “I want you to fuck me through this wall,” and the way Loki growled them as his hands found every sensitive spot on Stephen’s body—also not subtle. Loki always went weak-kneed after sex and said that Stephen had some kind of physical hold on him. The opposite was just as true. Loki’s touch made Stephen’s head spin. Just the _thought_ of Loki’s touch made Stephen’s head spin.

Obviously, he did what Loki wanted. Stephen couldn’t hold him up, but he grabbed the leg that Loki wrapped around his back, hooking his elbow under Loki’s knee. His other hand found Loki’s and he held it back against the wall, Loki’s fingers curling and uncurling against his in time with the movement of their hips. Sweating, chest heaving, heart feeling like it might explode with joy, with wonder that his life contained this, he buried his face in Loki’s neck as Loki demanded _harder_ in between moans. Loki’s fingers twisted in his hair and Stephen finished to him whimpering his name because how could he not, how could he not? Loki felt amazing. Making Loki feel good was even better.

He reached between them to really make that happen, and Loki continued thrusting into Stephen’s hand even after he’d come.

Then, breathless, they stood there kissing, Loki’s leg sliding down over Stephen’s ass and the backs of his thighs to the floor, Stephen still holding Loki’s hand against the wall. Finally, Stephen broke the kiss and pulled back a little, just so he could see Loki’s face.

Loki’s eyes stayed closed for a moment, but then he opened them, his gaze going from blissful to soft to tender as looked at Stephen. A smile curled one corner of his lips as he ran a thumb over Stephen’s beard and cheek. Then, his eyes flicked to something behind Stephen’s head, and he said, “It’s snowing.”

Craning his head to look, Stephen said, “Great. Walking down to the bodega is going to suck.”

“I sort of appreciate the challenge of flying my ship in a snowstorm, though,” Loki said musingly.

“You want to stop at the bodega for me?”

Loki gave him a crooked smile. “For you, Strange? Anything. I told you.” His fingers ran lightly through Stephen’s beard. “I’ve never cared for anyone the way I care for you.”

Stephen made a noise and pressed himself against Loki again, kissing him slowly as Loki’s hand slid around the back of his head.

“Does that mean you’re almost done here?” Loki finally asked, right after he’d sucked at Stephen’s lip, then his chin, in a way that made Stephen think maybe he shouldn’t bother pulling his pants on yet. “Because you owe me a date.”

With a chuckle, Stephen asked, “What was this?”

“Me doing you a favor,” Loki replied, smirking. He cleaned himself up and then cast a spell to change his shirt. As Stephen was putting his pants back on, Loki gently pulled his hands away, then hooked his own fingers into Stephen’s waistband, pulling him closer and buttoning them up himself.

There was something nice about this. Loki was so prickly on the outside, so hard, so intent on making sure everyone saw his sharp edges. But if you kept at it long enough, if you showed him he could trust you, then he’d drop his guard and show that he was exactly the opposite on the inside. How many people would guess that he was the kind of guy who would do up the pants he’d ripped off you twenty minutes ago? And that he’d do so with a look of such intent focus, as though there was nothing more important in the world than making sure Stephen’s pants were on properly.

Stephen couldn’t help it—he put his hands on the sides of Loki’s neck, leaned forward, and kissed him softly.

After a second, Loki broke the kiss. With a breath of laughter and a swift smile, he said, “I told you you were in trouble.”

Grinning back, Stephen said, “Couldn’t be happier about it, Odinson.”

Loki’s smile turned back to a smirk and he pulled Stephen into another kiss.


End file.
